Summer Garden Foliage

The hot days of summer! Plants that were lush and full of flowers in the spring are fading away due to the heat and your fall blooms are still several weeks out. So what do you do when your garden is in the summer transition? Focus on the colors and textures of foliage!

Planning a garden that has continuous bloom from the last frost of spring until the first frost of autumn is no easy task. Seasoned gardeners with years of soil under their nails or even green industry professionals know that to make a garden sing all season long, you incorporate foliage. Here are a few of my favorite foliage plants that provide steady color and texture the entire growing season.

Do you like orange, yellow, burnt umber, purple, green, lime or yes to all? Then you are going to love coleus. The color variety, leaf shapes and textures available for gardeners today are staggering. Coleus is at home in the shade garden, in dappled sun and some can even take full sun. What is most appealing about these plants is their versatility. Plants them in large groups to make a dramatic effect or pick out one or two as a focal point in a garden bed design.

Short on garden space? No worries as coleus are ideal container garden plants.  Main Street Fifth Avenue Coleus has the color intensity to compete with the hot, summer sun. The leaves have deep purple margins, the tips are in gold and the center of the leaf is drenched in deep pink. This is indeed some #finefoliage!

In fact I love the way Main Street Fifth Avenue pairs with Mighty Velvet™ Stachys in the Velvet Vogue™ mix of the Shady Showoffs™ Collection.  Stachys is also commonly known as Lamb’s Ears, but this particular cultivar has elongated leaves.  A perennial in Zone 7 or higher, it is an annual further north, but regardless it is a must for me in the sun or shade garden. I love the silver grey foliage of the plant with its got-to-touch-me soft texture. The bubble bees are drawn to the plant’s flowers, but the blooms themselves are not what I would consider ornamental in nature.  I keep the foliage clean, removing any dead or dying leaves and prune the flower stalks back. What I am left with is a full and lush bunch of soft foliage that provides a striking back drop that makes bright bold colors such as pinks, purples and reds pop!

Talking of color drenched foliage, I have to add Flora Mia Nero Ipomoea to my must-have list. It features soft lavender flowers which are charming on their own, but in the heat of the summer, when regular colors seem to get washed out from the sun, I am drawn to the rich purple color of this plants deeply lobed leaves.  I think this beauty really shines in a container where its fabulous foliage is able to cascade over the side of the pot.

If your container garden needs a bit softer color or smaller foliage, then you cannot go wrong with creeping Jenny. The mainstay of our grandmother’s garden beds, we are so used to seeing this wonderful creeper on the ground that it is easy to forget how well it works in the container garden. The small, lemon yellow foliage of Goldilocks Lysimachia contrasts beautifully with the darker colors of coleus, begonias and petunias. Its vining habit allows it to spill over the edge of the container, covering the edges a bit and it responds well to pruning so you can easily keep it in check.

There are also many wonderful perennials that are prized more for their foliage than their flowers such as Heuchera or Heucherella (a cross between Heuchera and Tiarella). This may be a bit of a cheat since many varieties have gorgeous flowers perched along the finest of stems. It looks like flowers dancing above the plant. But, when the flowers fade, the foliage of Heuchera and Heucherella is nothing less than stellar. Like the annual coleus, Heuchera and Heucherella are available in countless colors and leaf shapes and can take both sun and shade situations. Talk about an easy way to bring light to a shady spot! It is possible to create a stunning garden with this plant alone.

Another fabulous perennial choice is Faint of Heart or Pure of Heart Brunnera.  These forget-me-nots boast thick, heart shaped foliage with light green and silver white foliage with green veins. They can provide light in a shade garden and stand up to part sun as well. An extra added bonus are their petite blue flowers!
So, can you say ‘foliage’ to the summer garden rescue? I can!